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  • Russo posted an update 1 year, 1 month ago

    The COVID-19 pandemic has foisted unprecedented changes upon graduate medical education ranging from adjustments to patient care practices to adaptive modifications to educational activities. To comply with social distancing guidelines, in-person conferences and didactics have been suspended in most, if not all residency programs throughout the country. Many programs, however, have transitioned to live virtual platforms such as Zoom to continue educational activities. While live virtual learning has allowed for continued education, it presents its unique challenges. The impersonal nature of the virtual learning environment creates a propensity for detachment and disengagement. While the video function is turned off and the microphone is muted, a participant can completely disengage from virtual learning while still appearing to be present.Objectives To prospectively validate the ADNEX magnetic resonance (MR) scoring system and to evaluate a new modified ADNEX MR scoring system including diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) with apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) map to assess ovarian and adnexal masses. Methods The ethical committee approved this study. Written informed consent was waived. Between January-2015 and September-2018, 323 women with adnexal masses diagnosed at ultrasound (US) underwent a standardized MRI including diffusion and dynamic contrast enhanced sequences. The interpretation of the 323 consecutive MRI examinations was realized applying the five-category ADNEX MR scoring system, along with a modified scoring system including DWI with ADC map. For both scoring systems, a score was given for all adnexal masses. Sanguinarine Histological diagnosis was considered as the gold standard and lesions were classified as benign or malignant. The difference between the predictive value to diagnose malignancy of both classical and modified scoring systied scoring system. Conclusion DWI analysis including the ADC map could be integrated into the ADNEX MR scoring system to improve specificity, thereby potentially optimizing clinical management by avoid unnecessary surgery. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.Halide perovskites show incredible photovoltaic power conversion efficiency coupled with several hundreds of hours of device stability for finely tuned material compositions. It is expected to employ such a successful photovoltaic material in (photo)electrochemical(PEC) systems, including solar water splitting. However their stability is very poor in aqueous electrolyte medium and they decompose instantly, which limits their use in PEC systems. Here we report a vacancy ordered halide perovskite, Cs 2 PtI 6 , which shows extraordinary stability in ambient (1 year), aqueous medium of extreme acidic (pH 1), basic (pH 13) and electrochemical reduction conditions. We investigated their electrochemical and photoelectrochemical redox processes under various pH and applied potentials, and employed them as electrocatalyst and photoanode for hydrogen production and water oxidation respectively. The catalyst remains intact for at least 100 cycles of electrochemical cycling and six hours of hydrogen production at pH 1. The Cs 2 PtI 6 was employed as photoanode for PEC water oxidation and at pH 11, the material displayed photocurrent of 0.8 mA cm -2 under simulated AM1.5G sunlight. Using constant voltage measurement, we found that Cs 2 PtI 6 exhibited over 12 hours of PEC stability without loss of performance.Placental dysfunction has a deleterious influence on fetal size and is associated with higher rates of perinatal morbidity and mortality. This association underpins the strategy of fetal size evaluation as a mechanism to identify placental dysfunction and prevent stillbirth. The optimal method of routine detection of small for gestational age (SGA) remains to be clarified with choices between estimation of symphyseal-fundal height versus routine third-trimester ultrasound, various formulae for fetal weight estimation by ultrasound, and the variable use of national, customized, or international fetal growth references. In addition to these controversies, the strategy for detecting SGA is further undermined by data demonstrating that the relationship between fetal size and adverse outcome weakens significantly with advancing gestation such that near term, the majority of stillbirths and adverse perinatal outcomes occur in normally sized fetuses. The use of maternal serum biochemical and Doppler parameters near term appears to be superior to fetal size in the identification of fetuses compromised by placental dysfunction and at increased risk of damage or demise. Multiparameter models and predictive algorithms using maternal risk factors, and biochemical and Doppler parameters have been developed, but need to be prospectively validated to demonstrate their effectiveness.Glioblastomas (GBMs) are highly aggressive primary brain tumors characterized by cellular heterogeneity, insensitivity to chemotherapy and poor patient survival. Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) is a lysophospholipid that acts as a bioactive signaling molecule and plays important roles in diverse biological events during development and disease, including several cancer types. Microglial cells, the resident macrophages of the central nervous system, express high levels of Autotaxin (ATX,Enpp2), an enzyme that synthetizes LPA. Our study aimed to investigate the role of LPA on tumor growth and invasion in the context of microglia-GBM interaction. First, through bioinformatics studies, patient data analysis demonstrated that more aggressive GBM expressed higher levels of ENPP2, which was also associated with worse patient prognosis with proneural GBM. Using GBM-microglia co-culture system we then demonstrated that GBM secreted factors were able to increase LPA1 and ATX in microglia, which could be further enhanced by hypoxia. On the other hand, interaction with microglial cells also increased ATX expression in GBM. Furthermore, microglial-induced GBM proliferation and migration could be inhibited by pharmacological inhibition of LPA1 , suggesting that microglial-derived LPA could support tumor growth and invasion. Finally, increased LPA1 expression was observed in GBM comparing with other gliomas and could be also associated with worse patient survival. These results show for the first time a microglia-GBM interaction through the LPA pathway with relevant implications for tumor progression. A better understanding of this interaction can lead to the development of new therapeutic strategies setting LPA as a potential target for GBM treatment.

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